Drawer slides

[transatlantic]

Christ on a bike, this is driving my tits up the wall.

I am building a 4 drawer tool cabinet type thing. I have installed all the drawer slides, but on 3 of the 4 drawers, there is a 1-2mm gap on the right side where the drawer front does not meet the cabinet frame. Perfect on the left though, no gap.

The gap is a springy gap, and can be closed with a little finger pressure.

I have taken it all apart twice now and checked everything for accuracy. Its all parallel and /square/ (out by a few sheets of paper over 12 inches).

I don't know what I am doing wrong. Can you think what might cause such a large gap?

Annoyingly, I didn't take any pictures, but it's this sort of setup :

These are the slides : https://www.screwfix.com/p/ball-bearing ... 00mm/55282

 

[dzj]

It could be that the drawer front is not perpendicular to the sides, or the cabinet sides aren't parallel.
Sometimes small errors in both cabinet and drawer accumulate in such a way that they manifest in an annoying gap at one end.
Veneer shims can sometimes help.

 

[transatlantic]

Yeah - I am sure something is wrong, I just cannot find out where. When I check for square/parallel, everything is within half a mm. But as you say, half a mm here and half a mm there, it all adds up.

I've given everything a chamfer now, so it's looking a bit better, and as it's a shop storage thing, I'll just leave it as is, and hope I do a better job on the next one!

 

[MikeG.]

This is almost certainly because the two cabinet sides are "parallelogrammed", when looking down (plan view). In other words, they are parallel (in plan) but one projects further than the other. If you were to take the drawers out and put a large roofers square across the face and down one side, I bet you'd find that the left hand side stuck out a mm or 2 further than the right. Otherwise, as said, it's an accumulation of minor inaccuracies.

 

[custard]

I'll only use drawer slides and sheet goods construction once or twice a year, and then it's normally for utilitarian pieces like this router table bench,

But every time I do this sort of work I'm reminded that it's often more of an exercise in precision than the solid timber furniture making I normally do. It's easy to think that sheet goods plus drawer slides is an easy route to guaranteed square results. In truth it tests the accuracy, precision, and repeatability of machinery and technique far more than solid timber work. With traditional solid timber work there are ample opportunities for fitting components to compensate for tiny inaccuracies. Sheet goods work is more like production line assembly, each component needs to be dead on.

As previous posters have pointed out, there's almost certainly some fractional inaccuracy in your component cutting. Unfortunately "fractional" is all it takes.

 

[deema]

I’m guessing and apologise if I’m wrong, that your not using top draw :lol: slides such as Blum. If like me you use for this type of application something off eBay I think the chances are that the slides on either the cabinet or draw are not aligned perfectly fore and aft. When I’ve used them I usually fix with two screws each side in the fore aft adjuster slits and move forward the slide on the side that doesn’t hit the cabinet first. Usually the side that’s not touching hasn’t reached fully what ever the stay closed system is on the slide fully.

 

[large red]

As said draw slides are all about precision dimensions, square, parallel all have to be perfect or it will be reflected in the performance and movement of the draw.
What I don't understand is when I put flat packs together the same rules don't apply, they can be all over the place and the draws will work perfectly.

 

[Geoff_S]

I’ve just done a lot of drawers for my kitchen and what I found was a lot of inconsistency in the actual runners.

I found myself to be in the same position that you seem to be in and spent a frustrating amount of time trying to get these bloody runners to work, only to find that replacing the actual runner itself with another one, from the same manufacturer, solved the problem!

 

[transatlantic]

I’ve just done a lot of drawers for my kitchen and what I found was a lot of inconsistency in the actual runners.

I found myself to be in the same position that you seem to be in and spent a frustrating amount of time trying to get these bloody runners to work, only to find that replacing the actual runner itself with another one, from the same manufacturer, solved the problem!

One mistake I probably made was mixing them all up. So one draw side component might have ended up with a cabinet side component from another packet. Maybe mixing batches could produce inaccuracies?

Knowing my luck it's a mix of many things. User error and cheap components. Although these did feel quite good?

It's just annoying that one was perfect and there others with a gap. Maybe my cabinet is slightly parallelogrammed (I can't see it checking with a square though) which set the 3 wrong, and the one that was right might have been a dodgy runner. gah! :evil:

 

[basssound]

Having experienced the same issue with the same draw slides I'd have to say that at least either the draws or the cabinet aren't perfectly square, also them slides aren't the best quality and come apart quite easy.
The next time I'm building draws I'm going to try and higher quality slide.

 

[rafezetter]

I have to ask, is your square, square? There's the possibility that the one that fits is "wrong" and the three that don't are right

Larger the square the worse they are in my experience unless it's a really expensive one - when was the last time you checked it?

Framing squares are usually the worst of all - fine for roofing but no where near accurate enough for this work as Custard points out.

I've got one 12 inch certified precision square from which all others are checked and it stays in its box. The framing square took several tries to get right using the "metal punch in the corner" technique, to open or close it.

Doesn't help my poor skills of course, but it's a start

 

[transatlantic]

I have to ask, is your square, square? There's the possibility that the one that fits is "wrong" and the three that don't are right

Larger the square the worse they are in my experience unless it's a really expensive one - when was the last time you checked it?

Framing squares are usually the worst of all - fine for roofing but no where near accurate enough for this work as Custard points out.

I've got one 12 inch certified precision square from which all others are checked and it stays in its box. The framing square took several tries to get right using the "metal punch in the corner" technique, to open or close it.

Doesn't help my poor skills of course, but it's a start

It's not great, I check it on my MFT type MDF table top, and it's ~0.5mm out on the furtherst length. I have tried correcting it with a punch, but that never seems to work for me.

 

[Cordy]

Just like the o p I plan on building a 3 drawer tool cabinet type thing.
Going to buy the same slides from Screwfix HERE

My question; what size and type screws will I need ?
Drawers and carcass 0.75 inch ply

Never made drawers before, getting a basic idea from this Kreg video
thanks for any info

 

[transatlantic]

Just like the o p I plan on building a 3 drawer tool cabinet type thing.
Going to buy the same slides from Screwfix HERE

My question; what size and type screws will I need ?
Drawers and carcass 0.75 inch ply

Never made drawers before, getting a basic idea from this Kreg video
thanks for any info

I used 3.5/4.2 pan head screws. You don't want anything countersunk as it will move the slide. An Awl is also very useful to mark the position before screwing it. I didn't drill a pilot hole as my material was a very soft plywood.

 

[Cordy]

Cheers Transatlantic, I bought the screws that you mentioned; more beef than ones supplied

Carcass and drawers18 mm Eastern plywood, drawer bottoms 9 mm ply set in routed groove
Cheap handles from China direct, via the bay; they got delayed in the Sorting Office -- LOOK

Drawer fronts Maple with Walnut/Oak 'inlay'
Much better when drawers will open fully

Did not use the Kreg drawer things; but made followed THIS excellent video

 

[transatlantic]

Nice!

 

[transatlantic]

Just watched that video.

Using the vertical slots on the drawers, and the horizontal slots on the frame! ... damn. Why didn't I think of that. Makes so much sense, as then you can correct both vertical and horizontal issues.

 

[Cordy]

Just watched that video.

……….. as then you can correct both vertical and horizontal issues.

Bought these
LOOK

Never used, will put them in for sale column when we get back from holiday

 

[transatlantic]

Just watched that video.

……….. as then you can correct both vertical and horizontal issues.

Bought these
LOOK

Never used, will put them in for sale column when we get back from holiday

heh - for the amount of times I will be installing drawer sliders, probably once a year, I will have forgotten by the next time.